The search engines supposedly make our online lives easier by helping us find what we need, right? Well, if that’s true, why do as many as half of all queries made in the major search engines come back with results users rate as “unhelpful” at best?

In the end, search engines are simply software.

Whatever you put in determines what comes out. The better you get at telling the search engines what to give you, the more often you won’t get disappointed. When it comes to the great “info-vending machines” in the sky like Google and Yahoo!, how you enter your search terms counts as much or more than the terms themselves.

Avoid Single Keywords

Searching for a single keyword rates about as productive as trying to pick out a single grain of sand on a mile-long stretch of beach. Need a copy of Lincoln’s most famous speech? Searching for Abraham on Google will give you over 44 million pages to comb through (grab your coffee) on everyone from the prophet, to the president, to a pool guy in Toledo.

Searching for Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg Address speech on Google and you’ll find exactly what you need. When you want to find something, the more specific you get, the better your chances of finding it with least hassle.

Use “Quotes”

When your search results absolutely must contain a certain phrase, put quotes (“”) around it to tell the search engines to only return pages containing that exact phrase. A search for Firefox extensions will return all the pages that contain everything from the software you want to information about hair extensions.

In Google, simply by searching “Firefox extensions” in quotes, you eliminate half of results you might otherwise have to sort. Simply putting your search phrases in quotes will cut down massively on wasted time.

Use -, AND, OR

If you want the search engines to return results without a specific term, use the “-” sign to exclude the word or phrase. For example, a search for Revolutionary War generals -George would finally allow the other military leaders from 1776 to get some press.

If you want to give a logical choice for a search, then inputting “OR” between two words will find both iterations. For example, a search for Firefox extensions OR add-ons will net you both extensions and add-ons for the popular web browser. Finally, use “AND” to make sure the search engine returns results that contain all of the terms you enter.

For example, Firefox extensions free yields much less targeted results than Firefox extensions AND free. If you want even more targeted results, try combining techniques. A search for “Firefox extensions” AND free yields even more targeted results.

Proper Grammar Please

Capitalizing proper names and nouns will yield different results on almost any search. For example, searches for George Washington vs george washington will give you different results to sort.

Alternate Spellings

Like it or not, different people and cultures spell differently. On a recent trip to England I realized that a good portion of the English-speaking world buys “tyres” for their cars instead of “tires.” Online searches containing these two terms yield very different sites, but take you to the exact same types of products and services.

Overall, search engines like Google represent some of the most powerful research tools available online – and they’re all free! When searching for something, don’t get locked into just one search term, but try to approach it from various angles to find what you need. The better you get at telling search engines what you want, the better results you’ll receive in return.